Human Nature (TV story)
Human Nature 'is the eighth episode of the third series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Paul Cornell, directed by Charles Palmer and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones. Overview To be added Synopsis Martha Jones is hiding away in England in 1913. She's working at a boy's boarding school as a servant, watching the budding romance between the school's nurse and a teacher. A teacher with a face she knows all too well. Every now and then, she travels south to visit a police box she's got stored away in a large barn, which has a large miracle concealed inside. The same familiar face left a message for her, giving her instructions and asking her to look after him. Unbeknownst to the human schoolteacher, there are malevolent forces scavenging around. Hiding. Watching. Hungry. And will die without feeding on the man he's supposed to be. And so salvation only lies with a meek boy smuggling away a fob watch... Plot The Doctor and Martha burst into the TARDIS as a shot goes off behind them; taking off, the Doctor discovers their assailants are following them and shuts makes a drastic decision, but doesn't tell Martha what it is. He digs out a fob watch from underneath the console and tell her that it's very important, saying "This watch is..." John Smith suddenly wakes up from his dream on an ordinary English morning, his rising interrupted by the arrival of his servant Martha. He tells her about his fantastical dream of being a traveller in time and space and having two hearts. Using a stethoscope, Martha assures him that he has only one heart, the date is 10 November 1913 and he's completely human. As Smith goes about his day as a professor at Farringham's School for Boys, Martha and another maid named Jenny make work on the floors when a group of unpleasant boys make uncalled-for remarks about the ladies and a racist comment towards Martha, but she just shrugs it off. Jenny makes a sarcastic remark that soon, lads like them would be running the country, but Martha, recalling what is due to begin the following year, is saddened. Later, Smith stumbles into the school's nurse, Joan Redfern and displays an attraction to her, fumbling awkwardly with the books in his hands until he walks back and falls down a flight of stairs. While Redfern looks at his head injury, Martha comes along and asks after him, but Redfern just dismisses her. Smith shows her his 'Journal of Impossible Things' documenting all of the figures and creatures in his dreams and she is fascinated by them. Meanwhile, a group of Smith's students study in their dorm. One student, Tim Latimer, is bullied relentlessly by other, Hutchinson into doing his homework and more so for his incredible intellect and his habit of knowing information he shouldn't possibly be aware of, such as the contents of a letter from his father. Hutchinson's friend, Jeremy Baines, sneaks out of the window to collect a tanker of beer that was left unchecked in the woods. That evening, Martha complains to Jenny about having to sit outside to get a drink from the pub when a green light shoots across the sky overhead. Martha runs off to investigate it but runs into the field where it would've landed to find nothing there. After she and Jenny head back, Baines comes across the concealed beer and starts heading back when he, also seeing the light source, looks into it himself and stumbles into the invisible spaceship that cloaks before Martha and Jenny see it. Aboard the ship, the occupants speak to a terrified Baines through the air and show themselves to him, causing him to scream in terror. Baines later returns to the dorm without the beer, acting strangely, sniffing everything in the air, but none of the boys register something being wrong. Meanwhile, Martha cycles to a hidden location where the TARDIS is stationed on low power. Stepping inside, she looks up at a device suspended from the ceiling and remembers what brought them there; being hunted by their assailants, the Doctor's drastic measure to evade them was to change his biology from Time Lord to Human using a Chameleon Arch, disguising himself and implementing a cover story into his mind. He enacts the agonising process on himself and stores his essence in the fob watch. Using the scanner, Martha watches the message he'd left for Martha before he changed, leaving her a list of rules for what to do once he's become human. He also tells her in the message that if their trackers find them, get Smith to open the watch and he'd change back into the Doctor. Smith calls Latimer into his office to lend him a book and he is drawn to the watch on the mantlepiece; picking it up, he opens it and his mind is suddenly swamped with the essence of the Doctor. At that moment, the watch's contents are also detected by Baines. Before Smith returns, Latimer pockets the watch, takes the book and excuses himself. As the other students head to class, Baines sends a telepathic message to the ship's other occupants, informing them to activate the soldiers. At the nearby Oakham Farm, Mr. Clarke is attacked and overwhelmed by a small army of walking scarecrows and a young girl, Lucy Cartwright is kidnapped by a scarecrow as well. During a firing session at the school, Latimer has a vision of the future where he and Latimer are killed by a bomb on the front line of a warzone. Smtih and Redfern later take a walk through the village, talking about Refern's husband, who was killed in the line of duty. She also refers to mention of a great war referenced in Smith's journal. As they talk, Smith, almost subconsciously, sees a lady walking toward what will evidently be a tragic accident; to save her and her baby, he thrusts a boy's cricket ball and causes a chain reaction that saves them from a falling piano being lifted on a weak rope. Acting on the adrenaline, Smith asks Redfern to the town dance that evening, to which she accepts, still awestruck. On their way back to the school, flashes of the Doctor start echoing back into Smith's mind as he corrected a skewed scarecrow that moves after they move away. Back at the school, Smith draws a picture of Redfern in his journal and she is flattered by it; they share a kiss as Martha wanders in and promptly leaves in shock. She returns to the TARDIS and reviews his list, remembering that falling in love wasn't on it and she gets upset that the human he had to fall in love with wasn't her. Meanwhile, Latimer sits with the watch and starts detecting that he is being watched by Baines, Clarke and Cartwright. Elsewhere, Jenny is encircled by a parade of scarecrows and screams; she is taken back to the ship where she is possessed by the last remaining occupant. That evening, Redfern and Smith get ready for the town dance while Jenny, now possessed, confronts Martha in the maid's quarters and interrogates her. When Martha realises that their assailants have found them, she runs to Smith's office to find the fob watch only to discover it missing. Without it, she tries to coax the Doctor out of Smith herself, to no avail; she slaps him to snap him out of it but Smith just dismisses her from her position at the school and throws her out. Martha runs back to the TARDIS and grabs the Doctor's sonic screwdriver from his coat. Jenny and Baines break into Smith's office looking for him before heading to the village hall to find him at the dance. Martha arrives at the dance with the sonic to try and jog the Doctor out again and, while it does seem familiar too Smith, doesn't bring the Doctor back. Outside, Baines, Clarke and Cartwright murder the entry clark to the hall and hold everyone in the building at gunpoint and killing a man. Baines tries to force Smith to change back into the Doctor but he doesn't know what they're talking about. Then, Baines has the scarecrows grab Martha and Redfern to hold at gunpoint with an ultimatum: would he rather they kill Martha, his friend or Redfern, his lover. "You're choice..." Cast * The Doctor/Smith - David Tennant * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman * Joan Redfern - Jessica Hynes * Jenny - Rebekah Staton * Tim Latimer - Thomas Sangster * Baines - Harry Lloyd * Hutchinson - Tom Palmer * Clark - Gerard Horan * Lucy Cartwright - Lauren Wilson * Rocastle - Pip Torrens * Phillips - Matthew White * Doorman - Derek Smith * Mr Chambers - Peter Bourke Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''Human Nature'' page on '''Doctor Who Website